Honestly I Would Prefer San Diego
by SilentLibrettist
Summary: Seven kids on a trip to the zoo get a little more involved with the animals than they expected. Being drugged and shipped to Madagascar was definitely not in the plans. Nothing to do but sit back and go with the flow; unless you're the mothering teenager.


**Title Subject to Change.**

**This one will start out a bit slower than most of my stories, but once I get into it, it'll pick up a bit more.**

**Hope everyone likes, please review!**

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><p>Two new high-pitched voices floated to my ears, adding to the cacophony already grating on my hearing. Everywhere you turned was another conversation about the lions or the monkeys or the zebras. Which they were going to see first, which was the coolest, blah blah blah.<p>

"I think the zebra is the coolest! His stripes are awesome!" A little girl, Lisa, chatted excitedly.

"Nuh-uh! The giraffe is sooo much better than the zebra!" A boy called Nathan countered.

"Pfft, that wimp? He's almost always sick! I'm surprised he's not dead!" A red-headed Jake snorted in disgust.

"Yeah! Obviously the hippo's the best! Did you see how she swims?" A different girl named Hillary added her bit into the conversation.

"No way! The lion's way better than any of those other animals, stupid!" Jake boasted.

"Hey, hey." I snapped at the 8 year old.

"What?" He looked up at me with the face of someone that knew he did something wrong but didn't want to admit it.

"You know what you did." I said in a "you know I'm not stupid" voice. "Apologize."

Jake mumbled something incomprehensible under his breath.

"I can't hear you, and I doubt Hillary can either." I said, my voice getting a bit lower in warning.

"Sorry." He muttered half-heartedly. I rolled my eyes and sat back down.

It was another fifteen minutes before the bus pulled into a parking lot. Every single voice suddenly rose in volume, making me cringe and rub my temples. I looked up to the front of the bus, seeing the female foster care agent trying to get everyone to settle down. It was so loud that I couldn't hear her from the middle of the bus.

"Alright everyone! Nobody's getting off this bus until everyone is quiet!" I stood up and projected my voice as best as I could over the roar of children's voices.

The bus went deathly silent. I surveyed the kids again with a warning glare, then nodded to the agent. She nodded back gratefully.

"Kimberly is right, no one is getting off unless it's in a calm, orderly, quiet fashion." She announced, making the children sit up with innocent expressions on their faces. Satisfied, she then directed everyone off of the bus, one row at a time.

When it was time for my row, I just waved the next kids on. This continued until all the kids were off of the bus and being corralled to the front of the zoo. I quickly went down to the back of the bus, looking in every seat for garbage and the occasional child that wanted to stay behind.

Satisfied, I walked off of the bus and joined with the rest of the children at the front of the zoo. Unlike most other days for the Central Park Zoo, the front wasn't crowded with children, adults, and teenagers alike. Why?

Well, once a year, this foster program rented somewhere for all their kids to have a fun three days in. They're basically trying to offset the fact that you've been in foster care for yet another year. How do they get the money? I honestly have no idea. There aren't even that many kids in the program.

The once a year thing is pretty cool, actually. Like last year, they rented the Six Flags in Georgia. You can't imagine how awesome it was to have an entire theme park to yourself! You're only sharing with about forty other kids! And trust me, that is not a lot compared with the odd five hundred or so that is usually in the parks. Oh man, now that was awesome!

So anyway, this year they decided that the Central Park Zoo in New York would be a good spot for this years getaway. Which I was fine with. Not as cool as theme parks or water parks, but cool none the less.

"Okay, everyone! Would you like to know your schedule for the next three days?" The female agent-Harriet, I suddenly recalled-shouted over the noise. All the children instantly turned to her, excitedly yelling for their schedules.

"Well, you'll have to quiet down first." She said, making the kids simmer down into excited whispering. "Thank you. So, you all remember when we asked you what animal you would like to see most?"

A chorus of "Yeah!", "Uh-huh!", and "Yep!" rang out.

"Well, we've paired up everyone here with at least one zoo animal!" She waited patiently for the excited cheers to die down. "Unfortunately, not all of you will get to be with your favorite. But we made sure that everyone was at least with one of their other choices."

This time the cheers were less excited, but still extremely happy. I shook my head at those who were now pouting. They didn't realize how lucky they were that the most famous zoo in the US had closed off it's doors for the public just for the kids.

"Alright, before I tell each of you what your animals are, I'll tell you what the basics schedule is for the next three days." Harriet continued. The children turned to her somewhat impatiently, all eager to go meet their animals. "Well, for now, you're all going to separate into different groups. Each group is going to go around the zoo to see as many animals as they can before lunch. After we eat, I'll give you all your animals, and we'll all separate to spend the rest of the day with them. A zookeeper will be in every area just to watch over everyone, okay?"

There was a chorus of generally uninterested noises from the children who were now staring at the gate.

"Alright, now we're going to separate into groups of nine and one group of seven." Harriet continued to name off the usual groups. Eight kids with each of the four adults here. Six kids with me. Yes, me. Since I'm the only sixteen year old here, I've been entrusted with babysitting as well.

I was handed my list of names and the six I had walked over to me. I scanned the list, making sure everyone was here.

Lisa. The tan-skinned nine year old was fidgeting impatiently with her black and white striped T-shirt, short black hair sticking out in random directions. She was only a few feet away. Check.

Nathan. The pale, freckled brunette was shuffling nervously, constantly pushing his glasses back up his nose. The seven year old was practically leaning against my right leg. Check.

Hillary. The eight year old blond was calmly waiting for me to corral us all into the zoo. She was right beside Lisa. Check.

Kelsey. She was sitting on the bench right beside me, twirling her brunette hair on one finger. She smiled brightly at me when I glanced over, and I grinned back. Check.

Olivia. The dark-skinned seven year old was conversing with Hillary and Lisa excitedly. Check.

Jake. I looked up, then rolled my eyes when I saw him trying to sneak away towards an ice cream truck. I quickly walked over and grabbed him, ignoring his shout of protest. Check.

Then there was my name. Kimberly. I looked down to make sure I was still there, blowing a puff of air to move my bangs out of my eyes. Well, let's see. There's my pale skin, complete with a multitude of freckles. Check. My mid-back length creamy brown hair, wavy and curling out slightly at the edges. Check. Yup, I was all here.

"Okay!" I got the attention of my group. "Where do we want to go first?"

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><p><strong>Review please!<strong>

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